John Collison, co-founder of American payment operator Stripe, said the company could re-add support for cryptocurrencies if they provide fast and cost-effective transactions.
In 2014, Stripe became the first major payment company to integrate Bitcoin. However, in 2018, Stripe stopped processing BTC transactions, citing customers’ reluctance to use it. This was due to increased transaction confirmation times and high fees. As Stripe stated, for regular Bitcoin transactions, the commission can be several tens of US dollars, so Bitcoin transactions are as expensive as wire transfers.
In a recent speech at a financial technology conference in Abu Dhabi hosted by CNBC, John Collison stated that Stripe is not yet ready to add support for digital assets right now, but does not rule out the possibility of doing so in the future. He noted that recently there have been many developments aimed at improving cryptocurrencies and increasing their scalability in order to make crypto assets more acceptable for making payments.
“Cryptocurrencies are used to speculate in the market and this has nothing to do with Stripe. However, people can use crypto assets in different ways, ”Collison said.
In his opinion, the Solana blockchain and the second-tier Lightning Network solutions have great potential as they are aimed at increasing the speed of transactions and reducing fees. Collison also said the company recently formed a team to explore cryptocurrencies and Web3, the new decentralized version of the Internet. The task force was led by Stripe Development Manager Guillaume Poncin.
Recall that last year, Stripe paid the Massachusetts authorities a $ 120,000 fine for making payments in favor of the fraudulent PlexCoin project and insufficient risk monitoring.
